Labour’s grasping tax rate rise will damage recovery

IF voters were in any doubt that the Labour Party is all about peddling the politics of envy, Ed Balls has put that to rest.

PUBLISHED: 02:27, Sun, Jan 26, 2014

Ed Balls pledged to restore the 50p tax rate for anyone earning more than £150,000 [GETTY]

His pledge to restore the 50p top rate of tax for anyone earning more than £150,000 is as damaging to Labour’s election prospects as its imposition would be to the nation’s recovery.

When Chancellor George Osborne cut the top rate to 45 per cent in 2012, the result was that the tax take from the nation’s richest one per cent hit a record high.

Britain’s wealthiest entrepreneurs pay 30 per cent of the nation’s tax and that seems more than fair

Britain’s wealthiest entrepreneurs pay 30 per cent of the nation’s tax and that seems more than fair.

There is little evidence to suggest raising it back to 50p would do anything more than drive a wedge between the Government and the business community, put off investment and risk jobs. Former Labour PM Tony Blair understood this. For his entire Premiership the top rate stood at 40 per cent.

The Chancellor also understands that there comes a point when soaking the rich is a self-defeating and vindictive measure that does more harm than good.

You need only to look at the talent flight from France under massively unpopular socialist President Francois Hollande to see that.

If Labour leader Ed Miliband really wants to govern for One Nation then he should ditch this disastrous policy and his floundering Shadow Chancellor for good.